At a Crossroads in Time

Walking in the forest alone as if no time has passed. I am Midnir Montolia, a lumberjack at a crossroads in time. A staredown begins, but no one is in sight. I look only at the trees in the glistening snow. As I am being watched by someone or something I cannot see. Silence echoes in the forest, I speak aloud, “Hello? Is anyone there?” The only response was the crunch of snow from my footsteps.

Deeper and deeper into the forest I walked. I looked at my watch to see only a few minutes went by as I was walking, though I had thought I'd been walking for hours. “Time moves slowly in the forest.” I hear echo behind me. I turn to look only to see nothing, so I shrug it off and trek on. But as I turn back I see a mirror. “What in the world?” I say as I look into the blank mirror. The mirror had some kind of mystical aura around it. Even though it was blank, it felt as if it was staring into my soul. I blinked then all of a sudden I saw my reflection in the mirror, and it smiled by itself.

I turned and ran away as fast as I could, but it all looked the same. It feels as if I'm not moving. After I stopped running and caught my breath, I realized I wasn't alone in this snowy abyss. I was there, staring back again at myself. I tried to talk, but nothing came out. I looked around to grasp my surroundings, and the world around me started to fall apart.

With the world crumbling beneath my feet. As if time was collapsing in on itself. I looked and saw an old man with gray hair and bright blue eyes that pierced through the fog surrounding me. He said, "You strayed too far off the path, so you must suffer eternal wrath.” The old man looked familiar somehow. He spoke only in riddles. I started trying to find a way out of this place. Till he spoke out again with a tone that can only be described as foreboding, “At a crossroads in time, heed my rhyme, or fall to the mercy of time.” I was worried because as he said the words of wisdom.

The world grew dark. Looking around, I lost all hope. There was nothing but darkness. I saw a light in the distance I walked towards it. But the light snapped off leaving me. Alone. In an endless void. Of darkness. Floating in the dark abyss I see light again and go towards it.

I woke up in the forest I thought I got lost in. Now I'm walking through the forest trying to find out what happened. I blinked and everything disappeared. It was all just a white plane but somehow it felt dark. Blinking again I see the mirror. I knew its tricks and wouldn’t let it fool me again. So I ran to the mirror and kicked it but It didn’t break. My foot went through it and into somewhere else. “Maybe an exit,” I thought to myself before I stepped in. Inside looked the exact same but felt different. I saw myself again. In a fit of panic I closed my eyes, and blinked. I realized the trick of the forest. The more you blink the more the forest is trying to drive you mad.

I stopped, and I was back in the forest. I have fallen to the forest floor. I had lost all hope of leaving. For the forest has tricked me and I fell for it. As I kneeled in the snow I cried out to the forest “What do you want with me!” There was no response, not even an echo. But, for all I heard was echo, echo, echo in my head. I will forever be trapped in the forest.

I yelled out again, “Whoever is here, what do you want with me!” A man appeared, it was an old man. I was curious, and said, “You look familiar, do I know you?” There was silence for a bit. “Please answer me!”

The old man spoke, “I know you, and you know me, recall a disappearance across the sea.”

I spoke: “Wait, you can’t be talking about…”

He replied, ”Yes, I am.”

I said, “But you died...”

As I spoke, he disappeared, and I realized it was a trick. It all turned dark again, eyes were seen in the distance. Piercing teal eyes were staring and then they disappeared. Then I was left in a void of darkness with only my thoughts. Again I yelled. I couldn’t even hear myself even though it was quiet. An unrecognizable voice soared through the void and said, “You strayed too far off the path, so we shall repeat the past.” The darkness turned back to the forest, somehow a good sight after all the darkness and light. The voice spoke, “What were you doing in the forest.”

“I was just on a walk,and why should I listen to whoever you are?”

It foretold “I am The Watchman of the forest, you are one of many.”

“And what does that mea-.”

I was stopped when It all turned dark and The Watchman’s voice rang out and said “You toiled with something you didn’t understand”. “Now you should know your place.”.

It went quiet. It was over. I’ve been trapped now forever. At a Crossroads in Time.

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